Emerge2013 at ASU This Weekend Melds Science and Art to Help Envision the Future

Art and science will mix in creative and astounding fashion this weekend at ASU during Emerge2013.

The first thing that organizers of Emerge2013 this weekend at Arizona State University in Tempe want to make crystal clear about the event is that you don't have to be a geek, nerd, or egghead to attend.

Though it's true that the forward-looking event, which aims to envision mankind's future through a melding of art and science, is a cerebral experience, says co-organizer Joel Garreau, it's aimed to entertain anyone and everyone, regardless of their SAT scores.

"We're not going to apologize that this is an event for people with some smarts," Garreau says, "But we're also hell-bent and determined to make sure that it's interesting and -- dare I say it -- even fun."

Emerge, which launched last year, aims to not only entertain and enlighten a wide cross-section of Valley residents and get them considering the road ahead, says Garreau, an ASU law professor, it also aims to help "bust down any barriers between artists and scientists," both of whom are the types who typically are involved with helping chart the future course of society.

"The whole idea behind Emerge is to bring everyone from artists and dancers to engineers and storytellers together to redesign the future of what it means to be human," he says. "The two groups historically, in part, that have been staring at each other from across this divide with a certain amount of distrust."

This collaboration between arts-minded and science-minded types make up the first portion of Emerge2013 and takes place during a series of nine invite-only workshops that start Thursday and take place at ASU's Tempe campus over the first two days of Emerge.

Garreau says that organizers sought out a variety of local visionaries, tech-heads, lab geeks, politicians, and creative types to participate in the workshops. Each covers a series of subject matter related to the future, ranging from cutting-edge technology and game-changing singularities to the possible exploration and colonization of distant worlds.

"We were looking for a mix of people, and we deliberately reached out as far into the community as possible. The whole idea is that the poets don't have a lock on the truth any more than the physicists have," he says. "The workshops were carefully curated, like a dinner party, to bring together these people together to work together, and the notion is, hopefully the outcome will be greater than the sum of its parts."